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Contractor Suite

How to use Contractor Suite

Track job costs, machine hours and service, and bids with your team, from the office or the job site.

What it does

Contractor Suite is the trades spreadsheets as an app: job costs, equipment hours and service, and bids, with the same numbers as the workbooks. Your whole team signs in to one business account and logs from their phones.

  1. Sign in
  2. Buy a module
  3. Add your team
  4. Log from your phone
  5. Check the dashboard

Get started

  1. Open Sign in, enter your email and tick "I agree"

    Choose "Email me a sign-in link". There is no password.

  2. Open the link in the email within 15 minutes

    Each link works once. Ask for a new one if it has expired.

  3. Your business account is created on your first sign-in

    You are its owner. Rename it to your business name in Settings.

  4. Set the business time zone when the home page asks

    It decides which day is today: days out, days left and the Prepared date. Change it in Settings; until it is set, the app uses UTC.

  5. Buy the module you need on the home page

    Each module is a one-time purchase for the whole account.

  6. Add the app to your phone's home screen

    Open the site in your phone's browser and choose "Add to Home Screen".

Your team and roles

  1. Open Team, enter an email and choose a role

    Owners and the office can add people, up to 5 members per account.

  2. They sign in with that address and accept the invitation

    Their own account stays theirs; they switch between accounts on the home page.

  3. Change a role or remove someone from the same list

    Anyone but an owner can leave an account from the Team page.

  4. Every entry shows who logged it and when

  5. If two people edit the same record, the second one is asked to reload

    Nothing is overwritten: reload, check the change, and save again.

Owner
Everything, including buying modules and deleting the account
Office
Settings, the team, imports, and all the records
Crew lead
Adds and edits jobs, machines, bids and log entries
Read-only
Reads and exports; changes nothing

Buying and restoring

  1. Compare the five purchases on the Pricing page

  2. On the home page, tick "I agree" and choose Buy

    Only the account owner can buy. Payment is handled by our payment provider.

  3. The module unlocks for everyone in the account

    Buying Core after Pro never lowers Pro.

  4. In the phone app, buy with the App Store or Google Play

    Use Restore purchases on a new phone or after reinstalling.

Job-Cost Tracker: $29
Estimate vs actual for every job, with over-budget flags.
Job-Cost Tracker Pro: $49
Everything in Core, plus the PDF job summary emailed to your customer.
Equipment Hours & Service Log: $25
Hours per machine, service due by hours or date, cost per hour.
Equipment Hours & Service Log Pro: $39
Everything in Core, plus a daily email when a machine is due for service.
Trades Starter Bundle: $79
Job-Cost Tracker Pro, Equipment log Pro and the Bid Tracker, together.

Job-Cost Tracker: what it does

Estimate vs actual for every job: labor, fuel, materials and equipment hours, with a flag on jobs that run over budget. Everyone on your team can log costs from a phone.

  1. Set rates
  2. Estimate
  3. Log costs
  4. Check budget
  5. Job summary

Job-Cost Tracker: get started

  1. Open Job-Cost › Settings and enter your rates and tax %

    Labor rate, fuel price, equipment rate, tax on materials. Owner or Office only.

  2. Add a job with your estimate

    Labor hours, fuel gallons, materials $ before tax and equipment hours.

  3. Log actual costs on Cost log as they happen

    Date, job, category and quantity. Your phone is fine for this.

  4. Check Dashboard for totals and over-budget jobs

  5. Open a job’s summary to review it with your customer

    Pro: download it as a PDF or email it.

Jobs and estimates

  1. Give each job a short unique Job ID, such as J-101

    Letter case and spaces around it do not matter. It cannot be changed later.

  2. Enter the estimate: hours, gallons, materials $ and machine hours

    Estimate $ = hours × labor rate, gallons × fuel price, materials × (1 + tax), machine hours × equipment rate.

  3. The Budget flag on each job is calculated for you

  4. A job with cost entries cannot be deleted

    Delete its entries first. Nothing is removed by accident.

Cost log

  1. The date starts as today and the job as the last one you used

  2. Pick a category: Labor, Fuel, Materials or Equipment

  3. Qty is hours (Labor, Equipment), gallons (Fuel) or $ before tax (Materials)

  4. Leave Rate blank to use the Settings rate

    Amount = Qty × rate; materials add the tax %.

  5. Every entry shows who logged it

Job-cost dashboard

  1. Jobs, active jobs and jobs over budget

  2. Total estimate, total actual and the variance (actual − estimate)

  3. Estimate vs actual by category, as a bar chart

Job summary and Pro

  1. Open a job and choose Job summary

    One page: estimate, actual and variance by category and hours.

  2. Print it from your browser, or save it as a PDF from the print dialog

  3. Pro: Download PDF gives a ready-made PDF file

  4. Pro: Email to customer sends your message and a PDF link

    Uses the job’s customer email and the PDF email message in Settings. The link works for 30 days.

What the Budget flags mean

Over budget
Red on pink: actual cost is over the estimate by more than the alert % in Settings, or the job has costs and no estimate.
On track
Beige: within the estimate plus the alert %.
Not started
No actual costs logged for the job yet.
Variance $
Actual minus estimate. A positive number means over.
Variance %
Variance ÷ estimate. Blank when the estimate is 0.

Job-cost: common problems

  1. A job is Over budget but has no estimate

    Any job with costs and a zero estimate is flagged. Add the estimate to the job.

  2. “Changed by … at …; reload”

    Someone saved the same record first. Reload, check their change, then edit again.

  3. You cannot save Settings or import

    Only the Owner and the Office (admin) can. Crew leads log costs; Read-only can only look.

  4. Email to customer is grayed out or refused

    Add a customer email to the job. Emailing is a Pro feature.

Job-cost: your data

  1. Bring your workbook: Job-Cost › Import

    In Google Sheets open the Inputs tab, then File › Download › CSV. Do the same for Cost Log.

  2. Import Inputs (jobs) first, then Cost Log

    Rows that cannot be read are listed with their row number and why. Nothing is guessed.

  3. Export jobs and the cost log as CSV from Settings

    Same column headers as the workbook, plus who logged each entry.

  4. Deleting the account deletes every job and cost entry

Equipment log: what it does

Meter hours, service due by hours or date (whichever comes first) and cost per hour for every machine. Operators log the meter from their phones; the office sees what is due.

  1. Add machines
  2. Log hours
  3. Log service
  4. See what’s due
  5. Get reminded (Pro)

Equipment log: get started

  1. Open Equipment › Settings: fuel price and service intervals

    Hours and days, plus the “due soon” warning window. Owner or Office only.

  2. Add each machine on Machines

    Machine ID, in-service date and starting meter hours.

  3. Log meter readings and fuel on Hours

    A quick entry from your phone at the end of the day.

  4. Record every service on Service

    “Scheduled service” resets the service clock.

  5. Check the status on Machines and the Dashboard

  6. Already use the workbook? Import its tabs as CSV

    Equipment › Import: Inputs first, then Hours Log and Service Log.

Equipment log: machines

  1. Give each machine a short unique ID, e.g. EX-1

    IDs are stored in capitals; the ID cannot change later.

  2. Enter the in-service date and the start meter hours

    Until a scheduled service is logged, the clock runs from these.

  3. Leave the service intervals blank to use Settings

    Or set this machine’s own hours and days.

  4. Optional: purchase price and expected life hours

    Both together add ownership cost to the cost per hour.

  5. Open a machine to see its status, costs and log

    Current hours, next service, cost per hour, every entry.

  6. A machine with log entries cannot be deleted

    Delete its hours and service entries first.

Equipment log: hours

  1. Open Hours: the date is today, your last machine is picked

    Pick by name; check it is the machine you ran.

  2. Enter the meter hours and the fuel gallons

    Job and note are optional.

  3. Tap Log hours

    The highest reading is the machine’s current meter.

  4. The list shows who logged each entry

    Newest first. Edit or delete a wrong entry there.

Equipment log: service

  1. Open Service after every service or repair

    Date, machine, meter, type, parts, labor, who did it.

  2. Only “Scheduled service” resets the service clock

    Repairs, inspections and tires/tracks add cost only.

  3. Total = parts plus tax on parts, plus labor

    The tax % on parts is on Settings.

Equipment log: dashboard and statuses

  1. Dashboard: machines, overdue, due soon, hours and costs

    Plus hours used and cost per hour by machine.

  2. Cost per hour = (fuel + service) ÷ hours used

    Plus purchase price ÷ life hours. Blank until hours are logged.

Overdue
Red: past the service hours or the service date.
Due soon
Amber: inside the warning window on Settings.
OK
Green: nothing due yet.
Due by
Hours or Date: the limit the machine will reach first.

Equipment log: daily reminder (Pro)

  1. One email around 7 am when a machine is due or overdue

    It lists each machine with hours left, days left and the due date.

  2. It goes to Reminder email on Settings

    Blank = the account owner.

  3. The account time zone sets when 7 am is and which day is today

    Set it in Settings. The equipment Time zone, when set, overrides it for this module; blank or unrecognized = the account zone (UTC when that is not set).

  4. Nothing due, no email; never more than one a day

  5. Settings › Send the list now emails it right away

  6. To stop it, untick “Send the daily reminder” on Settings

Equipment log: common problems

  1. A machine stays Overdue after a service

    Log it on Service as “Scheduled service” with the meter reading.

  2. The machine list on Hours is empty

    Add the machine on Machines first.

  3. No reminder email arrived

    Check Reminder email, Time zone and “Send the daily reminder” on Settings (Pro).

  4. “Changed by … reload” when saving

    Someone else saved it first. Reload, check, and save again.

  5. An import skipped rows

    The result lists each row and why. Fix them in the sheet and import again.

Equipment log: your data

  1. Export machines, hours and service as CSV

    With the workbook’s column headers.

  2. Import the workbook’s Inputs, Hours Log and Service Log

    Re-importing the same file adds nothing twice.

  3. Deleting the account deletes every machine and entry

Bid Tracker: what it does

Every bid in one place: price from cost + markup, what to chase, and how often you win.

  1. Add a bid
  2. Send it
  3. Follow up
  4. Won or lost
  5. Win rate

Bid Tracker: get started

  1. Open Bid Tracker › Settings: set your markup % and follow-up days

    Owners and the office can change them. Defaults: 15% and 7 days.

  2. Tap Add bid

    Bid ID, project, customer, bid date and your estimated cost.

  3. Tap a status as the bid moves: Draft, Sent, Won or Lost

  4. Chase the bids marked Follow up

    They sit at the top of the list.

  5. Check the dashboard for win rate, pipeline and margin

Bids and statuses

  1. Bid ID is yours to choose and unique in the account

    Letters, digits, dots, dashes and spaces; "b-1" and "B-1" are the same bid.

  2. Bid price = Est. cost × (1 + markup)

    A blank Markup % uses the default from Settings. 0 means no markup.

  3. Margin = price − cost; Margin % = margin ÷ price

  4. Decision by is the date the customer said they would decide

  5. Each bid shows who logged it

    Read-only members see bids but cannot change them.

Draft
Being priced; not sent yet.
Sent
With the customer; days out are counted.
Won
Counts in won value and win rate.
Lost
Counts in win rate.
No bid
You passed on it; left out of the win rate.

Follow-ups

  1. Days out = days since the bid date, for Sent bids only

  2. Follow up shows when days out reach your follow-up days

    Exactly 7 days out with the default of 7 is a follow-up.

  3. Mark the bid Won, Lost or No bid and the flag goes away

Bid dashboard

Bids
Every bid in the tracker.
Open (sent)
Bids with the customer now.
Win rate
Won ÷ (Won + Lost). Draft and No bid rows are left out; 0 until one is decided.
Open pipeline
Total bid price of Sent bids.
Won value
Total bid price of Won bids.
Margin on won work
Won margin ÷ won value.
Need a follow-up
Bids marked Follow up.

The chart shows how many bids are in each status.

Bid Tracker: what the colors mean

Follow up
Amber row: a Sent bid as many days old as your follow-up days, or older.
Won
Green status.
Days out
Days since the bid date, for Sent bids only.

Bid Tracker: common problems

  1. Bid price is 0

    Enter Est. cost. A blank Markup % uses the default markup in Settings.

  2. A bid never shows Follow up

    Only Sent bids count. Check its status and bid date.

  3. "Changed by … Reload" when you save

    Someone saved the bid first. Reload, check their change, then edit again.

  4. You cannot save or the buttons are missing

    Read-only members cannot change bids; only the owner and office change Settings.

  5. Import skipped some rows

    The report lists each row and why. Fix them in the sheet and import again.

Bid Tracker: your data

  1. Import: save the Inputs tab as CSV, then Bid Tracker › Import

    Calculated columns are ignored; IDs already here are left unchanged.

  2. Export: Download CSV on the bids list

    Same 13 columns as the workbook’s Inputs tab.

  3. Deleting the account deletes every bid and these settings

Your data

  1. Settings › Export your data downloads each table as CSV

    The columns match the workbook, so the file opens in Sheets or Excel. Read-only members can export too.

  2. Untick "Share anonymous usage data" in Settings to turn off analytics

    Usage data never includes your jobs, customers, amounts or emails.

  3. The owner can delete the account and all its data in Settings

    Type the account name to confirm. This cannot be undone, and it does not refund a purchase.

The privacy policy lists what is stored. Card numbers never reach us: payment is taken by our payment provider or the app store.

Need help?

No sign-in email
Check spam, then ask for a new link. Links expire after 15 minutes.
A module says Locked
The account does not own it yet. The owner buys it once for everyone.
"Someone changed this; reload"
Another member saved the same record first. Reload, check, save again.
Cannot add a sixth person
An account has up to 5 members. Remove someone first.
Bought in the app but still locked
Wait a minute, then use Restore purchases. Write to us before buying again.